Hidden price increases: posters from July 1 to alert consumers to “Shrinkflation”

Les baisses de quantité ne sont pas toujours faciles à repérer. Midi Libre – CAMBON SYLVIE

As of July 1, major retailers are required to indicate on the shelves which products have reduced their quantity without lowering their price.

As of Monday, July 1, all products whose quantity is reduced and whose price per kilogram is increasing, a practice known as “shrinkflation”, will be indicated to consumers in supermarkets by a sign installed on the shelves.

It was the government that imposed it last April and the Minister Delegate for Business, Tourism and Consumption Olivia Grégoire promised to allow consumers to do so &amp ;quot;an informed choice".

On the poster, which must be affixed in large areas of more than 400 m2, the following words will be written: & quot;For this product, the quantity sold increased from x to y and its price per kilo, gram or liter increased by x% or x euros."

Initially, there was talk of a display duration, but it should be revised to one month. A sign which will only be applied to products whose decrease in quantity is not linked to a change in composition or an innovation, specifies the ministry.

Make way for “stretchflation”

It will also be possible to make reports from the SignalConso application or website. In addition, administrative checks may be carried out. According to the managers of the major brands, this should only concern a very small proportion of articles.

"There will be less than ten", assures a spokesperson for Système U, quoted by Le Parisien . No cases were detected at Carrefour thanks to a price correction procedure taken in advance with suppliers, while the brand had already carried out a display experiment last September.< /p>

Another technique now

But barely the government has cracked down on “shrinkflation” that we will now have to look at another technique: “stretchflation”. This time, manufacturers have increased the quantity of a product as well as the price, but sometimes in an exaggerated manner.

An example: a price increase of 35% for an increase in quantity of 15%, a trick that is not easy to spot.